Edmonton approves 6.6% property tax hike for 2024
Posted November 29, 2023 12:45 pm.
Last Updated November 29, 2023 12:50 pm.
Edmonton city council passed capital and operational budget adjustments Tuesday, including a 6.6 per cent property tax hike for the new year.
The city says it was about managing inflation and an affordability crisis while maintaining core services.
“We have been able to lower the predicted tax increase to 6.6 per cent, which reflects an increase of about $17 per month for an average homeowner,” said Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi.
The mayor says the city is playing “catch-up” and that the budget “course-corrects” years of underfunding public services.
“The reality that we are facing is that previous councils have not invested in public services to keep up with population growth and to keep up with pressures of inflations,” Sohi said. “And we are at a point where tax increases that are never easy to accept and approve for council need to match in a way that we are investing or re-investing in those core services that have been reduced.
“I think investing in public transit, investing in public services will serve lower- and middle-income Edmontonians, students and seniors hundreds of dollars in their personal costs they are paying now by accessing public services free of charge or at a very nominal rate.”
The tax levy is up from the five per cent proposed initially, but down from what was expected to be more than seven per cent when deliberations started.
“We started at 8.75, so now we are at 6.6,” said Coun. Tim Cartmell. “I do not offer that to say that we are heroes by any stretch – 6.6 per cent is a bad number. But what we have been debating for two weeks is the 1.6 per cent delta, which is the police funding, which is more bus service, which is an encampment strategy. All things that the people I represent have said they want to see supported.”
Police and public safety
Councillors were able to cut $8 million while still increasing tax dollars for police and public safety and encampment response.
“We have heard that public safety is the number one concern for Edmontonians,” said Sohi. “We are confident that these investments will make a meaningful impact.”
The safety of Edmontonians was a key element for Cartmell.
“By whatever means, with whatever inputs, budgets, spending, other policies, other moves, I want the people I have the privilege of representing to feel safe in the public realm all the time – on transit, in Churchill Square, in the park down the street, walking from their office to their car, walking from their school to the bus station – I want people to feel safe and secure,” he said.
“And there’s a little bit of perception vs. reality at times, but I want the perception to change that it’s generally safe I want it to first be safe, and then I want the perception to change that this is a safe city and you can rely upon our service to keep you safe.”
The mayor says while council was able to contain spending in several areas, such as core public services like transit, snow and ice clearing, the anti-racism effort, and reconciliation.
“We also protected our long-term capital commitments, including over 200 projects, like the Valley Line West LRT, vital freeway conversions, recreation centres, transit improvements and housing,” said Sohi.
Edmontonians are grappling with affordability
The mayor and councillors all addressed the affordability crisis that’s gripping Edmonton.
“I understand that many Edmontonians are grappling with affordability and this will as top of find through our discussions for the past week,” said Sohi. “With that being said, Edmontonians also rely on us to maintain and improve public services and we have an obligation to use the dollars responsibly.”
Coun. Sarah Hamilton says it’s always hard to explain an increase, especially when people are facing financial pressure.
“I would always like to see a smaller tax increase,” said Hamilton. “Edmontonians are facing cost pressures in all parts of their life, including their own utility fees and including grocery store prices, interest rates relating to mortgages, rent increases – all these things people are dealing with. So when we add a little bit more on top I know it impacts affordability.
“But at the same time that doesn’t mean that transit service isn’t needed, it doesn’t mean that additional snow clearing isn’t needed. And that can in turn prove quality of life for Edmontonians. So I was very clear on that support for core services during this adjustment.”
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City council voted 12-1 in favour of the adjustments.
“It’s still hard, right,” Coun. Andrew Knack said. “I mean even though I supported it and the vast majority of council did… when you’re asking people to pay more, that’s going to cost people. To the average household it’s going to be about $196 a year on their municipal taxes additionally.
“But at the same time, I come back to the point that we do have to pay for the cost of the services that people expect.”
Knack says he didn’t support the operating budget last year, which would have accounted for roughly five per cent of this. He says because this is a supplemental budget adjustment, they are talking about an additional amount.
“A lot of that is going into policing, a lot of it is going into response to encampments, a lot of it is going into increasing transit service of which almost all of those things are things I’ve been asked about quite a bit over the last year,” said Knack.
“For me, as much as it’s hard to approve, and hard to say yes to, to say no to it really felt like it would have been hypocritical for me because I supported increasing police service, I supported making sure we are responding better to encampments and I supported the increase to transit service I think we need.”
Knack also highlighted how much Edmonton is growing as a city. He says in the last two years the city has seen 70,000 new people move into Edmonton.
“If you were to build a new city in Alberta that’s going to have 70,000 people, that would be the sixth largest city in the province,” he said.
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Knack says most of those people are moving into new areas that currently don’t have services.
“If we keep growing at that rate, there are going to be continued growth pressures to fund services in those areas. So I don’t think we can gloss over that reality because it is really important to make sure we are address that growth.”
Edmonton Chamber of Commerce disappointed
The head of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce says the increase remains concerning to the business community.
“We’re disappointed our suggestions weren’t considered, but we will continue to push for smarter spending and efficiency improvements to safeguard tax dollars,” said president and CEO Doug Griffiths in a statement. “Working with council members and city administration, we’re determined to bolster Edmonton’s growth and competitive edge in the long run.”
Mayor Sohi says there is still a chance the levy could be lowered, adding he wants council to have a conversation in April once they know what’s in the provincial budget.
“There is a potential, if we do some significant work with OP12 (the budget adjustment) to find more savings that we could then use that to either reallocate to the tax levy or we could use it to fund some of those other key priorities,” added Knack.
